Investigators say Ayr house fire was electrical in nature

Fire officials have determined that a Thursday afternoon fire at an Ayr home was electrical in nature.

The fire tore through the home on Northumberland Street at Cedar Creek Road on Thursday afternoon, causing about $1 million in damage.

Friday afternoon, fire officials said they had yet to determine the exact cause of the fire, but it was an electrical fire sparked by something in the basement of the house.

Investigators say the fire was likely burning for an hour or more before anyone noticed it.

An excavator was brought in Friday to clear debris and give investigators a better look at the remains of the house as they pieced together what sparked the fire.

Firefighters from Ayr arrived on the scene minutes after a passerby reported the fire to 911 at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday. They found heavy fire in the basement, which quickly spread to the rest of the home.

Additional firefighters and equipment were brought in from New Dundee, Cambridge and Paris. Even then, it took about three hours and 50,000 gallons of water to get the fire under control.

Officials say they don’t believe the fire to be suspicious. Investigators spent much of Friday morning focused on an area in the basement, away from the furnace room.

Nobody was inside the house at the time of the fire. The couple who own the home spent Thursday night in a hotel.